David’s Choices of Songs/Artistes Series 1

By Tracewillow (with credits to my music consultants, Akang and Shirley)

Hey Guys! As David is away, we have decided to post a series of songs and artistes once or twice a month, based on David’s favourites and recommendations through either his written blogs/Vlogs, or by our picking them up from his tweets and his attending their concerts.

The first Artiste we are posting needs no introduction. He is David’s evergreen favourite – Jason Mraz – with whom we are all familiar. As we all know, David has mentioned him on numerous occasions.

His “I’m Yours” from his album We Sing We Dance We Steal Things peaked at No. 6 on Billboard Hot 100, giving him his 1st Top Ten Single.

I’m posting a vid of his duet with Ximena Sarinana who David also mentioned in his written blog at the start of his first solo tour in Virginia.

Before I start talking about Jason Mraz, I would like to refer to liying’s comment in the last thread.

liying
hey you made me smile that you still have dreams about David. :)
Running cross-country with him? And he shoved you to victory?
Are you sure you did not fall asleep like the rabbit did? And the tortoise (David) overtook you with his “slow and steady” pace? Sounds just like him! :D

LOL… Jason’s westerner Mandarin must have sounded funny! My brother-in-law’s westerner american uncle speaks Cantonese funnily too but its take awhile to understand what he is talking about. I take my hats off for these westerners learning chinese language.

The female singer is called G.E.M Tang and I think she is currently one of the popular singers in Hong Kong. Here is the BTS video of Jason rehearsing his Mandarin part with her.

What a great surprise that you’ve chosen to start off with Jason Mraz here. He did a great duet on Lucky with Ximena Sarinana as well as Gem. He must have a way with languages too besides being a great songwriter.

As much as we’ve heard David raving about Jason Mraz from day 1 and even covering I’m Yours on his first solo tour, I have never given much listen to him. That has since change after I’ve listened to his latest album called Love is a Four Letter Word. On this album, Jason wrote one song called The Woman I Love with David Hodges who was the writer and producer of David’s hit single Crush.

In COS, David listed Jason Mraz’s Beautiful Mess as one his favourite songs. He called him a genius and said that his lyrics are just amazing :D

When I watched the HK Itunes live recording of the show, Gem said she was nervous the moment Jason called her up the stage. He too declared he was just as nervous and I suppose he meant the singing of the mandarin part of that duet but he did great. Maybe he has a crash course in Mandarin before this :D

I have not heard much of JM either except I’m Yours which has often been on the radio airwaves.
Hey do you remember when we heard that song being played in KLCC and I stopped in my tracks thinking it was David? :D

It just goes to show that there are similarities between JM and David.
I look forward to the day when D sings with him. D would be thrilled to sing with his idol and we would be thrilled to hear these 2 amazing talents singing a duet! :)

LOL… I really giggled at this line when I first heard Jason sang “The Woman I Love” –> “Well, you annoy me sometimes too with your voice… ” Haha..sound so much like my mom!. Thanks for the info that David Hodges co-wrote this toe-tapping mid-tempo ballad with Jason.

Would sure love David to work with David H again and come out with one hit wonder song in the near future!

Thanks for letting me know that Jason spoke that few lines of “Lucky” in Mandarin well. I think I can guess what it means. Hahaha…For those who don’t know, I do ask Trace to translate my favourite Mandarin/Cantonese songs to English in exchange for computer lessons. LOL… Each time she will shivers and tell me how cheesy those chinese songs are. LOL… I don’t care as long as I love the melody of those songs. :-)

A few weeks ago, Kari tweeted pictures of David playing a guitar. Hope he could perfect his guitar skills and could have a jamming session with Jason Mraz one day just like this young man who did a cover song recently in Hong Kong (June 2012).

Love watching Jason’s hand signals and song banter with this young singer-songwriter who is currently popular in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Enjoy:-

LOL Akang, how’s that for being real? Indeed that part of the lyrics to The Woman I Love somehow will make us smile because it can be so true :D:D

I really love Jason’s jamming session with Khalil Fong – so cool! That was a great video. If only David would come back and play the guitar that way and is also able to let loose in this way on stage. That would absolutely blow the fanbase away LOL

You’re right, how can we not post that video of David singing I’m Yours?
Oh boy! Those screams were deafening in the beginning of the video :)
Good that he kept a straight face while singing the line ‘You’re so hot that I melted’ haha

Anyways I think D has a some way to go before becoming as good a writer and musician as Mr A-Z. His biggest problem would be the writing, I believe. I found this site with pretty great advice http://www.allaboutsongwriting.com/ Don’t think D’s allowed to surf the net though.

I like this song btw :-) since we’re on the topic of Jason Mraz

Auntie Trace, D used to be a cross-country runner. I should think he can run reasonably fast. lol

How can I forget those translation sessions I had to plough through from Mandarin/Cantonese to English for you lol! Those cheesy Chinese lyrics really made me come out with a cold sweat! :D
Yeah thanks for the computer lessons. :)

Shirley

Thanks to you and Akang for those JM vids! My first time watching him perform. :)
David would never let his shirt slip up and expose part of his torso like JM did. :D
David should really relax a bit more and be a little…bad. :D

Yeah I agree with you, David’s shoulder pumps in that vid are really sexy…but subtle.

David does have a little problem with writing lyrics, as compared to JM.
This is what I read from the link you sent :

“…keeping the ideas fresh often requires a lot of flexibility. It’s easy to suddenly find ourselves in a dead space, a plateau where all the shimmer is gone from our ideas”

It is equivalent to what writers go through – a mental block.

I wonder if he is at the moment churning out ideas for music and writing them down in the privacy of his room while on the Mission, for future purposes. Or perhaps he is just solely focusing on his Mission work.

It’s indeed a lovely song. I like it! It has a Crush feel about it. Thank you! :)
I wonder if it’s a “leak” done by Kari and team. A good way to keep the fandom going. How can anyone think David will not come back to continue with his music career? :)

Love the Sunshine song – great way to start my morning! Wonderful lyrics and thanks for sending that video along.

Well lets just say David is spreading his sunshine all around in Chile. He’d better keep his umbrella with him all the time cos it would be wet at this time of the year over there. I read that someone saw him with his umbrella and he was like a wet dog :D

LOL that leak song couldnt have come at a better time. Hope you had a grand celebration with a beautiful David birthday cake. Anyway from experience, its better not to have a birthday cake with David’s face on it cos you wont have the heart to cut the part with his face and will have to keep it in the fridge for as long as you could :D:D

David’s shirt has a mind of its own, it will slip up but it will be pulled down just as fast LOL! Yeah, whats the harm being a little bad, its just plain torso after all, not that we have not seen those stuff :D

Kari said David is not aware of the leak song ie Dont Run Away. Wonder how those other songs were leaked as well. Dont know why but I always like to listen to Power in Purity, guess it must be the combination of his voice and the children’s choir that makes it so appealing to me. Wish I could buy the whole song on Itunes.

Thank you Aunties Akang, Shirley and Trace for the birthday wishes :-D it was a wonderful birthday surprise from David. <3 It's fate!
Thanks for the smurf song Auntie Trace. :-D and I'll take your advice about not having D's face on a cake Auntie Shirley. Auntie Akang, a dream as per MKOP video above every night? Hahah I'll never want to wake up.

I think Kari should compile all D's unreleased tracks into one album. That'd be great :-) His unreleased tracks are a little more serious don't you think?
I've been listening to Don't Run Away on repeat today. Teehee